Book Review: Shrapnel: Contemplations by Lance Olsen

 

Shrapnel: Contemplations by Lance Olsen

298 pages, Hardcover
 Expected publication: February 1, 2024 by Anti-Oedipus Press

  I admit Lance Olsen who has written many books was new to me. AOP and the works published by my Dickheads Co-host D.Harlan Wilson have for years been an automatic read. The many cover designs had me thinking this might be a horror or ultra-violent story collection but it instead it is a collection of essays of intense literary criticism, musings, and ideas. The last bit is interviews with the author.

This might sound like a backhanded compliment but this book is loaded with big words and highly academic language, I admit some of goes over my head.  The essays tend to move effortlessly from commenting on reading and writing.  The first six essays "Limit Situations"  my favorite these essays was "Reading/Writing as Tangle."

"Nietzsche, Bataille, Deluze, and others are emblematic  of the appreciation that exists in any meaningful way until the event of reading occurs, and that event is a form of writing and unwriting."  When Olsen suggests without the right mind a piece of writing doesn't work as well. He does a lot to get into feelings I know well.  Reading is different for writers. I enjoyed this essay.

The 2 section Autrebioprahies has a few great essays like  Literary Autism and  the wonderfully snooty title of "Ontological Metalepses & the Politics of the Page." Section 3 Speech Acts are interviews with Olsen or ones he was a part of.

This time of book of essays is one I might not have read if I had been gifted a copy but I am glad I did. It was a thought-provoking work. I had to slow down from time to time and think about passages. This is not a light read. What is important about what AOP is doing here is making these types of books available in mainstream release. Not ultra-expensive academic publishing editions that are cost-prohibitive to most readers. Two or three of the essays would be worth the volume alone but every single essay has value.